Prince

Guilty Pleasures: I don’t believe in guilty pleasures. I read, watch and listen to plenty of things people will make fun of. I recently had that happen with my love of the Hamilton soundtrack and musicals in general. Around this same time someone mentioned something being their “guilty pleasure.” I don’t understand the concept of a guilty pleasure. If you enjoy something why would it make you feel guilty. Unless, of course, that “pleasure” is illegal or immoral. If this is the case then, yes, you should feel guilty. I freely admit to things that others would call a guilty pleasure with no shame at all. I love musicals. I watch Grey’s Anatomy. I watched Gilmore Girls regularly when it was on TV. I read sparkly pink YA book meant for teenage girls. I got addicted to the Game Show Network while at my mom’s house and wish I was home in the afternoon to watch Chain Reaction. I watched the soap opera Santa Barbara from the first to the last episode. I’m currently watching Live with Kelly and think Fred Savage should become the permanent co-host. I’m addicted to Facebook and spend a lot of time on social media. Does any of this make me guilty or ashamed? Nope. Why would I be ashamed to send time watching or reading things that make me happy? I don’t feel the need to pretend to be something I’m not. I don’t care if book, movies or music(80’s and pop punk) get good reviews. I only care about how they make me feel.

Reviews: I recently read a review of a comedy movie. Inside the review, the reviewer says you will laugh hard several times. The reviewer then goes on to give the movie a bad overall review. So, a comedy film is funny but is considered a failure? If I go to a comedy, I am going because I want to laugh. If I laugh a lot and hard isn’t that a success? Does it matter if the overall story is great? Are people really going to Neighbors 2 because they wanted a deep, meaningful story? Do reviewers even understand why people go to the movies? There are some movies in every genre that are dependent on a strong story, excellent acting, score, etc in order to achieve what they are attempting. Some movies, like Neighbors 2, are just meant to make you laugh. Did it make you laugh? Mission accomplished. Stop reading so deeply into things that aren’t meant to be deep. Same goes for TV shows. Also, once you no longer like the medium you should probably stop reviewing it.

Performing the Beatles, Prince, Queen, etc : I was already tired of hearing people opine that people should never attempt to cover the Beatles and was reaching that point with people saying the same about Queen. Now, I’ve already had someone on the Today Show(who makes sure to mention regularly that Prince was a friend) say the same thing in response to the Madonna and Stevie Wonder performance last night. There are a lot of bad cover out there. I agree on that point. My feelings, though, are if you are doing a tribute or making the song your own, then cover away. Most will never be as good as the original, but no one is un-coverable.

Yesterday, I headed out at 1 to get my $1 sub at Jimmy Johns. As I stood in the line, I did what I always do and looked to my phone for entertainment. I went to Facebook and saw a post from Michael Ausiello about the death of Prince. It was reported first by TMZ and as much as I argue with people that TMZ is now a legitimate news source, I held out hope that it was wrong and I would discover it was a hoax. Unfortunately, as I stood in line(it was a long line) it was confirmed that Prince was really dead. I’m still stunned by the news as I watch the tributes and listen to the Prince tribute channel on Sirius.

I can’t remember the first time I ever heard a Prince song. I recall hearing the songs Delirious, 1999 and Little Red Corvette and loving them, but it wasn’t until Purple Rain that I really became a Prince fan. I had the Purple Rain cassette and listened to it a lot all the way through college. I remember the first time I saw the movie on VHS. There wasn’t a bad song on the album. I know most people love the songs Purple Rain and Let’s Go Crazy(and I do as well) but my favorites were The Beautiful Ones and I Would Die 4 U. I also enjoyed listening to Darling Nikki because I knew people like Tipper Gore hated it. While I was a kid who liked a variety of music, I generally listened to more of the hair band stuff, but I loved Prince. His was the type of music that could appeal to everyone. I was a great example of that. While people make fun of the movie Under the Cherry Moon, Parade was another album I loved. I also owned the cassette for that one and listened to it over and over again and again, I loved every song on the album. I loved Kiss, but again loved lesser known ones like Anotherloverholeinyohead and Sometimes it Snows in April more. I have not loved a lot of his newer stuff as much, but The Gold Standard has made its way in to my playlist a lot recently. As I moved on to listening to more pop punk stuff I had forgotten how great his music was. Listening to the tribute station today reminded me of how much I loved it. I’m sad that he is gone and that I never went to see him in concert. I don’t think I will let another icon’s concert pass me by because of price or inconvenience. You never know when it might be the last time you have the chance.

I was going to spend some time ranting about the people who have emerged to complain that we care about his death and not the death of x. Or the people who think it’s good that he’s dead because they were offended by his Baltimore concert. Or the people asking if he had AIDS like that matters at all. I could spend a lot of time telling them what I think of them and I might still do that at some point, but instead I am going to go for a walk and listen to some more Prince. RIP